Meta sees “a possibility to introduce AI brokers to billions of individuals in ways in which can be helpful and significant,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg instructed buyers at present.
Whereas he was obscure about how precisely Meta will add generative AI to its apps, Zuckerberg gave essentially the most detailed preview but in the course of the firm’s earnings name for the primary quarter of this yr, when it reported $28.6 billion in income and a file 2 billion day by day customers of the Fb app, beating Wall Road’s estimates. Meta’s revenue for the quarter was $5.7 billion, a 24 p.c lower from the identical time final yr.
“We’re exploring chat experiences in WhatsApp and Messenger, visible creation instruments for posts in Fb and Instagram and advertisements, and over time video and multi-modal experiences as effectively,” Zuckerberg mentioned on the earnings name. “I anticipate that these instruments can be priceless for everybody from common folks to creators to companies. For instance, I anticipate that a number of curiosity in AI brokers for enterprise messaging and buyer help will come as soon as we nail that have. Over time, this may prolong to our work on the metaverse, too, the place folks will far more simply be capable to create avatars, objects, worlds, and code to tie all of them collectively.”
“We’re not behind in constructing our AI infrastructure”
With the distraction of the corporate rebrand and Zuckerberg’s concentrate on the metaverse, Meta initially dragged its toes on constructing the infrastructure it must help these sorts of AI options, main it to spend billions of {dollars} on rehauling its knowledge facilities in current quarters. As we speak, Zuckerberg mentioned that “we’re not behind in constructing our AI infrastructure” and teased that generative AI merchandise can be launched within the coming months.
The unprecedented success of OpenAI’s ChatGPT has made generative AI the tech pattern du jour, with Google, Meta, and smaller gamers like Snap now racing to construct competing functions. Whereas Meta launched an AI language mannequin referred to as LLaMA to researchers earlier this yr, it has but to debut something resembling ChatGPT in a method that’s broadly accessible.
It seems like that gained’t be the case for for much longer. Zuckerberg mentioned at present that generative AI is “actually going to the touch each single certainly one of our merchandise” and hinted at how the know-how may particularly velocity up WhatsApp’s nascent buyer help enterprise. “When you gentle up the flexibility for tens of hundreds of thousands of AI brokers performing on their behalf, you’ll have far more companies that may afford to have folks participating in chat,” he mentioned.
Whereas Meta could also be pivoting to AI like the remainder of the trade, it isn’t giving up on the metaverse, in accordance with Zuckerberg. He mentioned the “narrative that has developed that Meta is shifting away from the metaverse” is “not correct,” as evidenced by the deliberate debut of the subsequent Quest VR headset later this yr. Meta’s Actuality Labs division reported a internet lack of $4 billion final quarter, and the corporate mentioned it expects “working losses to extend yr over yr in 2023.”
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